The weird thing is those top 3 guys are no surprise, near-unanimous top100 guys, and the other two are actually two of our lower ranked recruits in this class.

The awesome part about our recruiting class is that at least one service or guru is high on almost all of our recruits, and most of our recruits are guru approved by all services. Ojemudia is the only one who's not at least a 5.7 to Rivals, but he's a 4 star to Scout and top-100 to Lemming. And he was invited to The Opening.

Yeah, I disagree with the Gant comment as well. He may be our lowest regarded recruit, but I still don't think he falls into the generic "meh" that a handful of our recruits have over the last few years. Rivals has him as almost a 4 star, btw.

And Gant has his reasons for lower ranking. He hasn't gone to many (any?) camps where a lot of these ratings are generated, and he doesn't have much of an offer list because he said from the beginning he was interested in UM and OSU and little more.

What we know about Gant: He's big (6'2", 210), he's fast (many good reported track times) and he lays big hits. Also, his dad was a good college football player, which can only help.

Rivals ranks the top 50 safeties, 16 of them have 4+ stars. Gant is 22nd. Wilson, by comparison, is 13th. Considering that list combines FS and SS, Gant is somewhere around a top 10 SS nationally.

I'm sure someone must have linked the article linked below (from rivals) already, but I'd love to see this happen, so fuck it.

"Kalis' commitment instantly makes him the headliner of the Wolverines' stellar 2012 haul, which already included five offensive linemen and nine players from Ohio. Five of them bear a four-star rating from Rivals, and Kalis and California lineman Erik Magnuson are both in line to pick up the rare fifth star later in the process."

as seniors probably explains it too. At this point the rivals rankings are pretty much in lock step with the caliber of their scholarship offers sheet. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to assume that he's ranked as a midling 3 star on rivals instead of a top 100 recruit here (or as a 4 star on Scout) because they haven't seen much of him yet. In Hoke I trust.

Very true. I'd just also want to add the very obvious fact that this UM coaching staff can recruit well. They aren't just adding kids to fill spaces. You don't offer Plan B kids this early in the process. The fact that many of our "so-so" commits (and I find it hilarious that 3/4* tweeners are considered our "so-so" commits) were offered in May or earlier says that this coaching staff wants them. You don't offer "meh" kids when you're in on so many great prospects.

^ This, I hate it when the any draft comes (looking @ you Darko) and you pick the 17 year old European wunderkid instead of the 23 year old PG who has played 4 years in a college system.

This is why I think Andy Dalton will be loads better than Cam Newton, somone who can play in a system rather than being the system.

Everything the scouts say about Mario is that he is just a non stop player and the NFL is saturated with players who were to short/fat/slow to be a NFL caliber player but dominate year in and year out.

I don't know if I agree with your post from the football standpoint (NFL being saturated with players too short, sat etc) but I hear you in the NBA draft portion. I am a raptors fan and wish BC would be fired asap. What that guy has done with his draft picks is on par with Millen.

I think it is already just desserts for Ohio that this is one of the best crops of players in OH, PA, and the midwest in general in the last ten years, and all they can do is watch players who once would have been locks for them go somewhere else. It's even more just when that "somewhere else" happens to be a school 162 miles NNW of them.

The year might have started out shitty, but it certainly has been a great spring and summer so far. If we're lucky, the NCAA will apply the coup de grace in Columbus later this year.

So Magnuson getting his 5th star, plus maybe picking up Dunn and Diamond/Garnett, who already have their 5 stars? Holy crap. Three 5* OL plus three underrated 3/4*s blocking for a 5* RB is Texas-style recruiting. I think I like this class.

And according to @mspeedkills on twitter Washington and Stanford are going to visit Michigan this weekend. Hopefully this time they can actually make it up. Sorry I don't have enough points to post it on the board.